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Cable eyes $5 bil upfront

Published on March 29, 2000.

Cable TV will balloon to a $5 billion upfront ad market this season and surpass network TV by 2005 in total ad dollars, said Bill McGowan, exec VP-advertising sales at Discovery Networks U.S. A $5 billion upfront would mark a 32% increase over last year, Mr. McGowan said today at Discovery Networks' annual upfront programming news conference in New York. He said a soaring economy, fueled by continued new money from dot-coms, will give cable networks their best ad year ever. Cable will continue to grow 22% per year for the next several seasons, he said, and by 2005 pull in $13.5 billion, topping the broadcast networks, which will snare $12.9 million for that broadcast year.